23:53 - Sunny PagliaccioNote to self: Do NOT open links on max volume in the middle of a quiet night. Otherwise, not bad. :D

23:52 - ApothecaryFast food workers planning a strike in support of $15/hour wages next month. I'm a tutor in a reading lab at a college and I don't even make that much, a bit of an overestimation of one's importance, don'tcha think?

01. Introduction/Sitra Ahra02. Kings Of Edom03. Unguentum Sabbati04. Land Of Canaan05. Hellequin06. 201207. Cú Chulainn08. Kali Yuga III09. The Shells Are Open10. Din11. Children Of The Stone: After The Inquisition

"Taste the tempting Fruit and be an Outcast from the Paradise."

Therion have to be one of the acts closest to me, emotionally speaking, since they are one of the first metal bands I listened to seriously, wih Vovin being one the first albums I bought back in 1998 when it came out, playing its part in the unorthodox way I slided into metal music. Ever since they never ceased to amaze me and what I learnt from them is that if a Therion album is good, it has to captivate you from the very first listen. Of course you can't conceive everything it has to say from one spin, but it makes you highly interested into keep on spinning and spinnning until you can say that you own the album's cause of existence up to a welcome extent. Gothic Kabbalah was the first Therion album that didn't have a big impact on me, although good and a natural continuation of Lemuria/Sirius B, less heavy but metal of course, based upon the orchestrations, the symphonic passages and the operatic vocal lines. So I was really curious of what will happen with Sitra Ahra.

After oh so many years, Christofer Johnsson has mastered the patterns of the marriage of classical and metal music, presenting to the audience metal operettas and Sitra Ahra is one of them, a sounding successor of Gothic Kabbalah, but highly inspired and with this glimpse of captivation a Therion album should preserve. One can find in here the gentleness and elegiac character of Crowning Of Atlantis blending with operatic lines à la Vovin leaning towards the aforementioned album, bringing forth anatolian scriptures of Deggial the way they would sound in 2010 as a natural continuation of Therion's course alongside heavy guitars, fabulous solos and power metal vocals in the same clean but hoarsing-to-high-pitched obscure vein they seem to adore.

The Celebrators of Becoming have re-opened the gates and "Introduction/Sitra Ahra"/"Kings Of Edom" overwhelm you with their sincere elegiac aura that lead through "Unguentum Sabbati's" imposing chrism to the "Land Of Canaan". This composition unfolds piece of the grandeur this part on the map once held, a new ten-minute magnum opus by Therion, evoking mysticism and the mystery of times long gone. Multifaceted, filled with fragileness and introvert power, without repeating itself from beginning to end, leading you to a journey through anatolian might and inspiration. And you have to love the harmonica which personally reminded me of Bruce Springsteen's "The Ghost Of Tom Joad".

But still, the wandering would seem incomplete without the devoutness of "Kali Yuga III" and nocturnal essence of "The Shells Are Open", the ominous and violent approach of "Din"; and "Hellequin", a harlequin's seducing dance! The celebrating "Cú Chulainn", the pre-apocalyptic dance of "2012" manifesting the end of days, proclaiming the dawn of of a new era's spiritual nurishment and the hallucinating and caressing "Children Of The Stone: After The Inquisition" could not be missing. After all, every single chant which consists of Sitra Ahra is a part of a sound puzzle that fulfills another Qliphothic expedition.

What seemed easily pompous, a bit tiring in terms of duration and not a hard ride for Therion to accomplish on Gothic Kabbalah has found its ideal expression on Sitra Ahra's 61 minutes of glory due to the inspirational factor and the way the band managed to make the overall outcome blend well together thanks to the good musicianship and the atmosphere that comes forth. A solid piece of symphonic metal from its profound fathers (as for the godfathers, count in Celtic Frost), proving that they have a reason to exist and giving promises for the future.

"Drink the Emerald of will and dreams , the Stone is falling, follow us beyond the world of stars."

Wrong, wrong and extra wrong across the board. Regardless of how well it translates into your own language and then translates into English, THE PARADISE is an incorrect use of THE in the English language.

I'm an English teacher and do professional translations in my spare time. Asking me to check Google translation is fucking laughable at best. Daniell, nothing you said makes any sense considering everything I wrote is grammatically correct. Therion's use of "THE" is being used improperly. Go wrestle with that one.

Any time you non-native speakers want to step up and test me feel free. I get paid R$50+ an hour for this shit and accept payments via PayPal. Thanks for stopping by and please come again.

You are one arrogant tosspot, I'll give you that.

You are of course right about that paradise problem, but you're wrong here:

I don't care if you're a native speaker, how many years you've taught English, or even that you know where and when to use BEING in a sentence. Your comment about Germany makes everything else irrelevant. Because it shows you for the pitiful little person you are. You and your kind deserve nothing better than to be spat at and ignored. With so many lives of your countryman and other people gone to fight Germany, your comment should make you be ashamed of yourself. May you and all of us never know the pain and sorrow suffered by the people of that time, but your arrogant childish ignorance makes me wish you'll know just a tiny little bit. Just so you'd realize what a sad little person you are.

Vadgros, it gets even better. He is a really nice guy!
Below is ponderer's PM to me about this subject:

Quote:You are easily the dumbest motherfucker I've ever met online. I've met a lot of stupid assholes in my time but you take the fucking cake buddy. I didn't really expect some Polack retard to even attempt to confront me openly so I'll give you credit for that, but you've made yourself look like a complete fucking retard in front of everyone at this point.

Um... "since this anyway pointless discussion" is totally incorrect grammar genius. You have amazing English skills and you actually have the balls to confront a native English speaker with that shit?!?!??! You really put your foot in it now.

So let me get this straight, you get to reply here and make a total ass of yourself because you know NOTHING about English and I'm supposed to use a PM?

BLOW ME

I've been teaching English for the last 13 years and I sure the fuck know when and where to use BEING in a sentence. Like some non-native doucheabag Eurotard troll is going to come on here and tell me how to do my job? I don't think so son. Why don't you go back to whatever passes for school in Poland, get some English skills before you start making a complete fucking ass of yourself on an open forum, and then go troll someone else because quite frankly I'm sick of listening to your stupid bullshit on here.

EVER WONDER WHY NOT ONE FUCKING NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKER BOTHERED TO POST ON THIS THREAD? That's right. They are all laughing at your stupid ass. You wanted a piece of me, you got it buddy. I'm not about to take any shit from some Polak.

I am curious about something though... what was it like having your country raped by Germans and then ignored by the rest of the world?

You might as well fucking ban me now because I'm never going to relent. You called me out and you are going to pay.

MAN! What a stupid SON OF A B****!!!!!

I hope you drown soon on your own feces for that sentence! Stupid fucking retard ! You're a teacher? Of what? Stupidity and arrogance? You're simply the most retarded / arrogant guy I've seen online, And i really do hope they ban you, you son of a pathetic person!

Don't even try to insult me. You are ignored so far, you nazi bastard!

He's indeed arrogant and retarded. So hopeless there's nothing to do with him. I realized this after some discussion and stopped replying to him.

And he said after a while that "it should be continued on PMs". I told him to fuck off. He doesn't worth the attention. He's ignorant and hopeless anyway.

He's stuck in the past and should have stayed in the 80s, where he belongs. There's nothing worse than those people stuck in the past who believe they know everything better than others and refuse to accept that things change with time. All they do is spitting their bitterness on boards because they try to fight changes, a fight lost in advance.
That's why I despise and hate traditional Heavy Metal lovers in general (though many of them are fine - but you also get lots of unpleasant people like Ponderer from fans of this genre).

That's right everyone, I'm old. I'm obviously the worst of my kind. My BEING old is my biggest fault as a human being and my BEING rude to daniell the Polish troll is me just BEING an asshole. THE lunch is ready so I need to go eat THE lunch. Feel free to perm ban me from THE Metalstorm for having my own opinion and not bowing down to some guy who can barely construct a coherent sentence in THE English.

That's right everyone, I'm old. I'm obviously the worst of my kind. My BEING old is my biggest fault as a human being and my BEING rude to daniell the Polish troll is me just BEING an asshole. THE lunch is ready so I need to go eat THE lunch. Feel free to perm ban me from THE Metalstorm for having my own opinion and not bowing down to some guy who can barely construct a coherent sentence in THE English.

Don't be a jerk, anyone with a brain would notice that people are against your arrogance and SPECIALLY your "nazi" sentence.
It has nothing to do with English or your age. At least from my pov.

The Paradise can be a entity also. At least i think it can...

You can call some island a Paradise and refer to that as " I wish i'll go to paradise". (the island) or "I wish I'll go to "the Paradise"" (entity).

Am i wrong? Possibly I am (I am not "native", and I know I have my limitations)

He's indeed arrogant and retarded. So hopeless there's nothing to do with him. I realized this after some discussion and stopped replying to him.

And he said after a while that "it should be continued on PMs". I told him to fuck off. He doesn't worth the attention. He's ignorant and hopeless anyway.

He's stuck in the past and should have stayed in the 80s, where he belongs. There's nothing worse than those people stuck in the past who believe they know everything better than others and refuse to accept that things change with time. All they do is spitting their bitterness on boards because they try to fight changes, a fight lost in advance.
That's why I despise and hate traditional Heavy Metal lovers in general (though many of them are fine - but you also get lots of unpleasant people like Ponderer from fans of this genre).

Not completely. He also likes some modern stuff (Nevermore, Cannibal Corpse, but mostly because of Alex Webster, so it's for Blotted Science, I guess, new Dream Theater, etc.) but the most funny thing about him is how he thinks Mercyful Fate are THE black metal band (and that trve black metal is traditional metal with Satanic lyrics).

The only way to deal with Ponderer (who seems to be trying to turn himself into the MS resident troll) is just pat him on the head and send him somewhere that more befits his maturity level. Btw, does anyone actually believe his claims of being an English teacher for 13 years? If he is than he's the most childish one I've ever ran into.

Therion in this album just went a bit too far being weird by going for the 70's feel to the album.
Land of Canaan and Kings of Edom are perhaps the only 2 songs that i might add to a playlist.
Although just as with all their albums they manage to write some nice mystical / magical lyrics, which is what i love the most of this band.

EVER WONDER WHY NOT ONE FUCKING NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKER BOTHERED TO POST ON THIS THREAD?

Probably because we don't want to be associated with you. Refering to "the paradise" can be grammaticly correct, depending on the context in which it is used. In this case it is refering to a particular paradise. You could also substitute the for this. Eg. "I will be outcast from this paradise.". The use of either the or this tells the listener that the person being cast out previously resided within the afore mentioned paradise and that they considered it their home.
Unfortunatly, I agree with Ponderer's opinion on First Wave Black Metal (see mercyful fate - don't break the oath review). but I generaly use the qualifier "First Wave" because it does bear little resemblence to regular Black Metal.
Also, has a large chunk of this argument been deleted? I saw it all months ago, but now there's a big gap.